A couple times each month, I’ll share some current NASA-related items of interest. I firmly believe that more people knowing about what NASA is doing means more people willing to enthusiastically support our missions, so even if you don’t really follow space happenings on a regular basis (or at all), I hope you find these occasional posts interesting!

1 // If all goes well, a Japanese cargo ship will be on its way to the space station when this post gets published! The HTV-6 mission is scheduled to launch at 7:26 this morning and will arrive at the ISS early next week. It’s been more than a year since the last HTV flight and it’s carrying lots of much-needed supplies and equipment. Each cargo ship also carries “crew care packages” containing a few small things for each crewmember — notes from home, photos, books, that sort of thing. And each cargo ship also carries a load of fresh fruit and vegetables! When you’re used to each freeze-dried and shelf-stable food most of the time, you can imagine how exciting it is for the astronauts to get an apple or an orange.

2 // The success of HTV is particularly important after the loss of a Russian cargo ship last week. The Progress 65P mission blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan and all appeared to be going smoothly until a little over 6 minutes into flight, when data from the rocket disappeared in the mission control center. The rocket engines should have burned for over 8 minutes. The spacecraft on top of the booster didn’t make it to orbit, and pieces of it were found on the ground in a remote region of eastern Russia the next day.

The past several years have not been kind to our friends in the Russian space program. This is the third loss of a Progress vehicle in the history of the ISS program, and all three have happened in the last 5 years. I hope they are able to figure out what went wrong, correct the problem, and launch again soon.

3 // I was sad to hear of John Glenn‘s passing yesterday. Glenn holds two rather unique records as the first American to orbit the earth and the oldest person to ever travel into space! The first was accomplished in 1962 and the second was in 1998 when he flew on the space shuttle. At 95 years old, he had certainly lived a full and worthy life! Godspeed, Mr. Glenn.

4 // It’s admittedly long, but if you ever wanted to get a feel for what it’s like to glide through the ISS, this video is the one to watch!

I’ve written two guest posts this month for Sew Mama Sew’s annual Handmade Holidays roundup. The first — Gifts for Geeks — was published a couple weeks ago and the second is coming up next week. As I wrote a short bio to go along with that post, I started with my standard “NASA engineer by day, quilter by night” byline…and realized that it might be fun to mix those a little more here on the blog too. I firmly believe that more people knowing about what NASA is going means more people willing to enthusiastically support our missions, so even if you don’t really follow space happenings on a regular basis (or at all), I hope you find these occasional posts interesting!

1 // A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched yesterday afternoon carrying 3 new crewmembers to the International Space Station! The ISS normally has a crew of 6 but they’ve been down to 3 since a previous group landed at the end of October. The new crew is currently hanging out in their cramped little Soyuz but will dock with the ISS tomorrow afternoon. They’ll stay onboard until next spring.

2 // There’s a long list of rather mundane things that need to be done when you’re about to leave the planet for several months…like getting a haircut! Astronaut Peggy Whitson was the NASA crewmember onboard the Soyuz yesterday (along with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and European astronaut Thomas Pesquet). She’s had short hair for years, but enjoyed a trim during her last full day on Earth for a while. They actually cut hair pretty similarly on the ISS — with an electric razor, and holding a vacuum cleaner close by to keep all the stray hairs from floating away!

p.s. Did you know astronauts also vote from space? I’m assuming Shane Kimbrough wins the crown for the most absentee of all absentee ballots cast this year.

3 // You might have heard about the “Super Moon” earlier this week — seen above floating in the sky over the Soyuz launch site in Kazakhstan. It looked pretty but actually caused flooding problems in some low-lying areas thanks to the slightly higher tides associated with the moon being both closer to Earth (which has to do with where it was in its monthly orbit) and forming a straight sun-Earth-moon line (which is always the case for a full moon). As global warming continues and sea levels rise, this kind of thing will only get worse. It’s minor now, but someday it might not be.

4 // Many of us at work are curious/worried/interested/anxious about what the new Presidential administration will mean for NASA. This isn’t actually specific to the person elected — there’s always uncertainty associated with a change in leadership. We went through some pretty significant upheaval during the first few years of President Obama’s time in office so it won’t be a huge surprise if we get thrown for a few loops again. One thing that’s nearly a guarantee is that there will be a freeze on hiring any new federal employees. Hiring new people is difficult enough in normal times, so having another freeze — especially when my group is currently short-staffed — will be frustrating.

A couple weeks ago, I was honored to receive a pretty special award at work called the Silver Snoopy. I heard another recipient classify it as an award that you always hope to get but never really expect to see, and I definitely agree. I found out a couple months ago at a division staff meeting, and I was totally surprised — I had no idea it was coming. I was really looking forward to the awards ceremony this month.

It was an afternoon ceremony and I really wanted to bring Jose and the girls along to join me in the photo. It’s not the greatest photo — Emma is making a funny face and I came really close to inadvertently blocking Charlotte with the way I held my certificate — but I love it. I really want my girls to see me being a working mom, and I think it’s important for them to know when I’m doing good things. I know that a 4-year-old doesn’t really understand a lot of it, but even she can grasp the idea of getting recognized for doing something good.

Annnnnd then it was back to real life. Emma demanded fruit from the snack table at the reception, and Charlotte is sucking on her pacifier and playing with a hairbrush. Parenting FTW!

Today I’m over at Yes and Yes talking about what it’s like to work at NASA, including in Mission Control.

I started my career at Johnson Space Center in Houston as a college sophomore, spent several years as a trajectory analyst after I finished graduate school, and then worked as a flight controller for the final 5 years of the Space Shuttle program. When the shuttle stopped flying in 2011, I shifted to a new role supporting the International Space Station as a Safety Engineer and I’m still there today — almost 20 years after I first walked in the doors at Johnson Space Center.

And I’ve been blogging most of those years too!

So, whether you’re coming here from Yes and Yes or have been with me for years…welcome! Here are a few more space-related posts you might want to check out:

Hello!

I'm Sarah, a NASA engineer by day and quilter by night. I live in Houston with my husband and our two young daughters. I've had this ol' blog for more than 15 years, and these days it's home to my quilting work, snippets of family life, and occasional musings on my engineering career.